I’ve been meaning to drop the forum a line, been a while since I went but here it is!After so long fishing I finally get to fish the holy grail of carp waters and fish ‘the POOL’, not that I count myself as a carp fisher through and through, even though I landed my first carp at the tender age of 12 back in 1972 at one of Kent’s major Darenth valley carp Venues. It was not easy then as anyone who has fished on hard pressured waters in pre-hair rig times will know! Only in my later years have I realised that to catch a fish of any species with the right tackle and in the right circumstances can be as richly rewarding as landing the largest specimens.

I Had a great first weekend experience on the pool in late September, when I arrived I was greeted by the 3 smiling faces of the other guys booked in for the 48 hour session. In fact I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first arrived to see numerous fish on the surface in my prospective swim, the first thing I did was to set up my 2lb test floater rod and to pult out a few free offerings. To my amazement and joy a couple of fish started to show interest almost immediately. My heart was racing as I made my first cast and watched as one of the large dark shapes under the surface approached my offering.Yes I had a take on the fist cast and was so overwhelmed by the whole moment that I missed it and the bait flew straight back still on hook and hit me square on the chest. By this time I was in need of some composure as I hastily tried to re bait for subsequent casts. To add to my despair I hooked a fish on what was probably my 5th cast only to have it slip the hook seconds after the take, however a few casts later and 3rd time lucky I then solidly connected with an 18 1/2lb common which was successfully netted all within an hour and a half of arriving. I stood over the fish in the net and almost had to pinch myself in case I was dreaming this totally unexpected brilliant start to my session.

No more fish came to surface baits on the session and I had one more take to a bottom bait on the second day which resulted in a hooked fish which again slipped the hook after about 15 seconds due to my mainline being deeply sunk in heavy weed in front of me.So all in all I couldn’t have wished for a nicer weekend, although the weather was pretty pants at times the company was great, beer was good and the food was brilliant. Special thanks to the other 3 guys and their dedicated ‘chef’ Rich who all invited me in as one of their group to dine with them.I won’t forget that whole experience in a long long time and it was also great to meet both Nick and Les during my stay.